A week before the London bombings, there was talk about support waning in America for the war in Iraq and secret meetings with insurgent leaders suggesting an exit strategy was being quietly worked out. If there is one lesson to be learned from the London bombings, it is that Iraq and Afghanistan are the real front lines in the war against Islamic terror and that with every attack on coalition cities, more troops should be committed there, not less. Unfortunately the European appeasement lobby will prefer the softer option of looking for the ‘root causes’ which make nice Islamic youngsters behave in this strange way. And throughout all the troubles of human history, there has never been a cheaper all-purpose, one-size-fits-all ‘root cause’ more readily available and so well tried and tested than the Jews; and now Israel. In the aftermath of July 7th we can therefore expect even greater pressure to be applied on Israel to sacrifice the safety of her own citizens for peace and quiet in Western cities.
All prime ministers of Israel have faced this kind of pressure at various times in our short history as a state. Few if any have stood up to it like Menachem Begin. In his account of the 1979 peace negotiations with Egypt, Begin’s close friend and confidante, Harry Hurwitz, told of the time President Carter paid a personal visit to Cairo and Jerusalem to push through the last five stubborn articles of agreement that stood in the way of clinching a treaty. In three days of difficult meetings, the American President saw Begin as the charming host, the man of principle and tough negotiator who insisted on crossing every “t” and dotting every “i”.
At the height of a particularly heated and frustrating discussion with the Israeli Cabinet, Carter presented the American version of a final text. After reading it, Begin said calmly and simply: “We will not sign this document.” All eyes turned to Carter who, white with rage, responded: “You will have to sign.” Whereupon Mr Begin answered: “Sir, I will not have to sign any document to which I do not agree. I take exception to this statement of yours.”
After a silence of a few seconds that seemed an eternity to everyone in the room, Carter said in a low voice: “You are right, Mr. Prime Minister. You are right and I apologize.”
